Shadow cabinet minister Kate Osamor resigns after alleged journalist threat
Kate Osamor resigned today as secretary of state for international development, she announced on Twitter.
Last night Osamor allegedly threatened a journalist who doorstepped her in relation to questions about how much she knew about her son's drugs conviction.
In her statement Osamor said she had resigned "to concentrate on supporting my family through the difficult time we have been experiencing".
She tweeted: https://twitter.com/KateOsamor/status/1068889478905892866
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “I have accepted Kate Osamor’s resignation and would like to thank her for her work as our shadow secretary of state for International Development. She brought a new dimension to the role by committing Labour to tackling global inequality as well as poverty as part of building a world for the many not the few.
“I know Kate will take this time to support her family, work for her constituents and support our party’s efforts to rebuild Britain from the backbenches.”
Last night Osamor allegedly threatened a journalist who knocked on her door asking for comment.
Osamor, 50, the MP for Edmonton, allegedly told the journalist to f*ck off, threatened him with a bat and threw a bucket of water at him.
The Times journalist was approaching her for comment in relation to reports she had misled the public over her knowledge of her son’s arrest.
The newspaper reported her as saying she “should have come down here with a bat and smashed your face in”.
Her son, Ishmael Osamor, 29, who she employs in her parliamentary office, was arrested for drug possession at the Bestival music festival in Dorset last year.
Labour Party officials had said Kate Osamor knew nothing of his arrest until he was sentenced in October.
However, it has now emerged that Kate Osamor had written a letter to the judge in the case, asking for leniency and describing his remorse.
Ishmael Osamor was caught with £2,500-worth of ecstasy, cocaine, ketamine and cannabis at the festival in Dorset in August last year.
He was later elected to Haringey Council where he held a cabinet role.
In October he was sentenced to a two-year community order and 20 days rehabilitation, with the judge reportedly telling him he was “very lucky” not to receive a custodial sentence.
He subsequently resigned from his position on Haringey council and resigned as a councillor but continued his role as his mother’s chief-of-staff.